Bowmanville's special tiger captured forever in film

Oshawa This Week

Lost in the all the glitter, money and beautiful people at Sunday's Academy Awards was a little slice of Bowmanville.

Ang Lee's adaptation of Canadian novelist Yann Martel's imaginative novel, Life of Pi, about a boy adrift on a lifeboat with wild animals, featured The Bowmanville Zoo's resident tiger, Jonas, in several scenes in the film.

Bowmanville Zoo owner Michael Hackenberger's experience watching the film capture four Oscars (best director for Ang Lee, original score, cinematography and visual effects) was bittersweet: Jonas died unexpectedly on the operating table in early 2012 as a consequence of an undiagnosed birth defect.

Live action scenes featuring Jonas were filmed in 2011 in Taiwan and were combined in editing with a computer-generated tiger, the final result being a seamless, amazing depiction of the interaction between the story's main character, Richard Parker, and the animals throughout the film.

And there's something to be said for the fact that a Canadian tiger, raised right here at home in Bowmanville, figured prominently in a compelling story penned by a Canadian author. From Mr. Hackenberger's point of view, however, it couldn't have been particularly surprising that Jonas would flourish in front of the camera.

A resident of the Bowmanville Zoo from the time he was just a cub a few weeks old, Jonas was an unusually social animal who would occasionally go home with zoo staff and spend time playing with their pets. He also had a way of attracting headlines: He was among two camels in a trailer stolen and missing for several days in 2010. He survived on -- what else? -- cat food until the abandoned trailer was discovered in rural Quebec by police and the animals were returned to Mr. Hackenberger.

So, while we acknowledge the presence of Jonas in the film and celebrate his part -- however small -- in being honoured by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences last Sunday, we must also lament his loss.

He was a victim of abduction who went on to greater achievements, a movie star who proved more than ready for his closeup, a popular attraction at our local zoo. But he was also a dearly loved member of the Hackenberger family.